Deora wants CNG supply to Delhi increased

New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) Petroleum Minister Murli Deora Saturday asked the gas companies and other concerned agencies to work on a “war footing” to improve the supply of compressed natural gas (CNG) in Delhi. The minister Saturday held a meeting with senior officials of Gas Authority India Ltd (GAIL) and Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) following reports of long queues at CNG filling stations.

“He asked all the concerned agencies to work on war footing to improve the CNG supply to meet the full requirements,” said a government press release.

According to IGL managing director Om Narayan, there has been 250 percent growth in private consumers over the last two years. Further, the hike in prices of petrol and diesel has also sharply increased the number of vehicles converting to CNG.

It was pointed out by officials that the current supply problem in Delhi was largely caused by increase in demand with CNG vehicles coming from the neighbouring suburbs of Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad.

IGL officials also pointed out that they were facing bottlenecks in expansion of CNG network in suburbs, especially Noida, where the Noida authority had stopped mid-way the construction of a CNG station. IGL has invested over Rs.400 million in Noida.

Deora told company officials that he would speak to the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments to remove impediments to facilitate the CNG expansion programme.

IGL pointed out that it plans to increase the dispensing capacity by 30-40 percent by December 2008 by installing 54 new electric motor driver compressors and 120 CNG dispensers. Besides, it also plans to ask Delhi Transport Corp to allow utilisation of supply stations at six depots.

IGL pointed out that this expansion programme was currently held up by the regulator due to an ongoing debate between the petroleum ministry and the regulator.

Besides, there had also been lack of allotment of new plots for CNG stations. Deora told IGL that it would immediately take up this issue with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

A CNG consumers’ meet will be held Sunday morning at a CNG station in south Delhi, where representatives of various transport organisations have been invited.